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THE PRESIDENTS AND THE 
NATIONAL CAPITAL 



BY 

THEODORE W. NOYES 



Read Before the Columbia Historical Society, 
March 21, 1916 



Reprinted from the 

Records of the Columbia Historical Society 

Vol. 20, 1917 



PRESS OF 

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 

LANCASTER, PA 



THE PRESIDENTS AND THE 
NATIONAL CAPITAL 

BY 

THEODORE W. NOYES 



Read Before the Columbia Historical Society, 
March 21, 1916 



Reprinted from the 

Records of the Columbia Historical Society 

Vol. 20, 1917 



PRESS OF 

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 

LANCASTER, PA. 



By Transfer 

AU'i & 1117 






'. 






THE PRESIDENTS AND THE NATIONAL 
CAPITAL 



[Reprinted from The Records op The Columbia Historical Society, 
Vol. 20, 1917.] 



THE PBESIDENTS AND THE NATIONAL 
CAPITAL. 

By THEODORE W. NOTES. 
(Read before the Society, March 21, 1916.) 

As the scientist reconstructs a prehistoric animal on 
the basis of the discovery of a few scattered bones, so 
one may deduce, with more or less accuracy, the gen- 
eral course of the capital's history from the references 
to it in the messages of successive Presidents. A com- 
posite view of these presidential thoughts concerning 
the capital pictures in miniature the achievements and 
hardships, the hopes and fears of the nation's city. 

All the early Presidents were in touch with the cap- 
ital community and interested in its welfare. George 
Washington's personal interest in it was notable and 
conspicuous. The Federal city was as "the apple of 
his eye." John Adams's wish, suggested in the first 
presidential message delivered in the new National 
Capital, that Washington had lived to see the city as 
the seat of government, has met and will meet the sym- 
pathetic and assenting response of all Americans. 

It was an old custom of the local legislature of the 
city formally to thank each President at the close of 
his term for what he had done for the capital, and of 
the retiring President to make personal and often com- 
plimentary response. Among these replies of record 
are those made by Madison, Jackson and Fillmore. 

President James Madison said on his retirement, 
March 4, 1817: 

"I am much indebted to the citizens of "Washington, in 
whose behalf you speak, for the expressions of regard and re- 

60 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 61 

spect addressed to me. These sentiments are the more valu- 
able to me, as my long residence among them has made me 
well, acquainted with their many titles to my esteem, at the 
same time that it has enabled them to mark more particularly 
the course of my public and personal conduct. Their par- 
tiality has greatly overrated both. But they do no more than 
justice to my honest zeal in the service of my country, and to 
my friendly dispositions toward this city and its inhabitants. 
I have ever regarded the selection for the national metropolis, 
made by its great founder, as propitious to the national wel- 
fare ; and, although I could not rival my immediate predeces- 
sor, in the aids he afforded, I was not less sincere in my de- 
sires for its growth and improvement. The ultimate good 
flowing from the disaster which at a moment clouded its pros- 
pects [its partial burning by the British in 1814] is a grati- 
fying compensation to those on whom it fell, and is among 
the proofs of that spirit in the American people, as a free 
people, which, rising above adverse events, and even convert- 
ing them into sources of advantage, is the true safeguard 
against dangers of every sort. On the point of a final de- 
parture from Washington, I pray its citizens to be assured that 
every expression of their kindness will be held in lively re- 
membrance, with cordial wishes for their collective prosperity 
and individual happiness." 

On President Jackson's retirement the municipal 
authorities in their address thanked him for the interest 
he had always manifested in the affairs of the city and 
expressed their earnest hopes that in his retirement 
to private life he might live to enjoy many years of 
uninterrupted happiness in the repose so necessary and 
so desirable after his long service in the various 
perilous, responsible and honorable employments which 
had been confided to him by the American people. 

Jackson replied that he deserved their thanks rather 
for what he had intended to do than for what he had 
done; nothing could be more gratifying to him than 



62 Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 

this mark of respect ; he reciprocated their kind feeling 
and presented to the citizens of Washington through 
them his best regards and prayers for their happiness 
both here and hereafter. He then bade them an affec- 
tionate farewell. 

President Fillmore, in his response to the city coun- 
cils, said that he could not take his departure from their 
delightful city, where he had always been treated with 
so much kindness and consideration, without feeling a 
pang of regret at the severance of so many social ties 
which had been to him a source of unalloyed happiness. 

As late as Buchanan's term the municipal authorities 
took their formal farewell of the President. If Lincoln 
had lived his pithy, pointed response to the address of 
the city fathers on his retirement would doubtless have 
•been a classic. He had formed the habit of delivering 
the weightiest national utterances in the course of brief 
familiar replies to addresses by the city's mayor or to 
serenading citizens. For example, when he first came 
to Washington, in response to an address of the mayor 
and a day later in reply to a serenade he uttered his 
few historic words of earnest reassurance and appeal 
to the distrustful and rebellious south, words full of 
pathos and moving power. And at the end, after Lee's 
surrender, when he was serenaded at the White House, 
in response to calls for a speech he suggested that we 
had fairly captured the tune of "Dixie" and asked the 
band to play it. (See Star, April 10, 1865.) 

Presidents of later date may not have mingled so in- 
timately with the community. They may not have held 
the people of the city personally in the same regard, 
but they have on the whole been considerate and help- 
ful, many of them much more practically helpful than 
some of their predecessors of the early days. 

Since the adoption of the present form of govern- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 63 

ment, under which the Commissioners have in effect 
authority to report every year to Congress, opportunity 
is given for Presidents to shift the responsibility for 
making local recommendations entirely upon the Com- 
missioners. This opportunity has not, however, been 
seized. In most instances the President has helpfully 
backed the Commissioners in their most important 
recommendations or in some special projects which he 
himself has favored. 

Every predecessor of President Wilson has in a mes- 
sage to Congress indicated his interest in and expressed 
some thought concerning the nation's city. Let us 
imagine the faces of the Presidents to pass in succes- 
sion before us as in a moving picture film— some 
familiar, some strange— all smooth shaven "before the 
war" except for rudimentary side whiskers in some 
portraitures of John Quincy Adams, and all bearded or 
mustached since Lincoln's time except Johnson, Mc- 
Kinley and Wilson. And as the Presidents pass before 
our eyes let us imagine each as expressing in turn a 
sentiment concerning the capital, which shall be the 
essence of his representations on this subject in his 
messages to Congress. 

Geokge Washington. 

The first President did much, wrote many letters, but 
said little in his formal messages to Congress in rela- 
tion to the city which he created and which was named 
after him. In his third annual address, October 25, 
1791, he declares -that the district of ten-miles-square 
for the permanent seat of government has been fixed 
and announced by proclamation. 

"A city has also been laid out . . . and as there is a pros- 
pect, favored by the rate of sales which have already taken 
place, of ample funds for carrying on the necessary public 
buildings there is every expectation of their due progress." 



64 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

In a letter to Congress, January 8, 1796, he announces 
that he has accepted "the grants of money and of land" 
in connection with the permanent seat of government 

and says: 

"I have no doubt if the remaining resources are properly 
cherished so as to prevent the loss of property by hasty and 
numerous sales that all the buildings required for the accom- 
modation of the government of the United States may be com- 
pleted in season without aid from the federal Treasury." 

He proposes a national university at Washington. 

John Adams. 

In his fourth annual address, November 22, 1800, the 
first delivered in Washington, as the permanent seat 
of government, Adams congratulated Congress "on the 
prospect of a residence not to be changed." 

"It is with you to consider whether the local powers over 
the District of Columbia, vested by the Constitution in the 
Congress of the United States, shall be immediately exercised. 
If in your opinion this important trust ought now to be exe- 
cuted you cannot fail while performing it to take into view the 
future probable situation of the territory for the happiness 
of which you are about to provide. You will consider it as 
the capital of a great nation, advancing with unexampled 
rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth and in population, 
and possessing in itself those energies and resources which 
if not thrown away or lamentably misdirected will secure to 
it a long course of prosperity and self-government." 

In his reply to an address of the Senate, November 
26, 1800, he says : 

"It is my fervent prayer that in this city the foundations 
of wisdom may be always opened and the streams of eloquence 
forever flow. Here may the youth of this extensive country 
forever look up without disappointment not only to the monu- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 65 

ments and memorials of the dead, but to the example of the 
living in the members of Congress and officers of government, 
for finished models of all those virtues, graces, talents and ac- 
complishments which constitute the dignity of human nature 
and lay the only foundation for the prosperity or duration of 
empires." 

Probably the foundations of wisdom in accordance 
with the petition of President Adams have at the cap- 
ital been always opened:; certainly streams of eloquence 
here forever flow. And one has only to scrutinize and 
attentively consider "the members of Congress and 
officers of government" who now grace the nation's 
city to appreciate how thoroughly President Adams's 
fervent wish has been met that these officials should be 
to the nation's youth " examples " and "finished models 
of all those virtues, graces, talents and accomplish- 
ments which constitute the dignity of human nature 
and lay the only foundation for the prosperity or dura- 
tion of empires." 

But while both branches of President Adams's peti- 
tion—that for considerate legislation for Washington 
as ' ' the capital of a great nation ' ' and that for Congress 
to serve as a finished model of all the virtues and 
graces— are reasonably met by the national legislature 
in this year of our Lord, 1916, it is to be noted that for 
four fifths of a century members of Congress paid 
much more attention to the second than to the first peti- 
tion, woefully neglecting the capital's legislative needs 
and apparently assuming that the capital's privilege 
of profiting by the uplifting influence of their example 
constituted satisfaction in full of their constitutional 
obligation to the city. 

Thomas Jefferson. 
In his message to Congress, January 11, 1802, Jef- 
ferson protests against the hasty forced sale of the lots 



66 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

donated to the government. He recognizes "a residu- 
ary interest of the city" in these lots, pointing out that 
if wisely handled they would not only meet the national 
requirements, but would "insure a considerable surplus 
to the city to be employed for its improvement." He 
added : 

' ' If indulgence for the fund can be admitted they will prob- 
ably form a resource of great and permanent value, and their 
embarrassments have been produced only by overstrained 
exertion to provide accommodations for the government of the 
Union." 

Like Washington, Jefferson was anxious that the heri- 
tage, so to speak, of the ward of the nation in gifts 
of land and money should not be wasted by its inju- 
dicious national guardian. Unfortunately, too little 
heed was paid to these admonitions, and the foundation 
was thereby laid for the evils subsequently imposed 
upon the District through national mishandling of its 
finances. 

Jefferson suggests also a national establishment for 
education founded on an endowment of lands. 

In his message, January 24, 1803, Jefferson records 
the fact that the marshal of the District of Columbia 
has, as directed by law, caused a jail to be built (in 
part) in the city of Washington, and reports that "the 
portion actually completed has rendered the situation 
of the persons confined there much more comfortable 
and secure than it has been heretofore." The first 
municipal improvement which figures in a President's 
message is thus the jail. 

James Madison. 

Madison advocated forcibly and repeatedly George 
Washington's project, indorsed by Jefferson, of a na- 
tional university at the capital, "the expense of 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 67 

which," he suggests, in 1810, ''might be defrayed or 
reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have ac- 
crued to the nation within those limits." In 1815 he 
said : 

"Such an institution claims the patronage of Congress as 
a monument of their solicitude for the advancement of knowl- 
edge, without which the blessings of liberty cannot be fully 
enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the for- 
mation of other seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened pre- 
ceptors, and as a central resort of youth and genius from every 
part of the country, diffusing on their return examples of 
those national feelings, those liberal sentiments and those con- 
genial manners which contribute cement to our Union and 
strength to the great political fabric of which that is the foun- 
dation. ' ' 

Madison's views concerning the political status of the 
District are set forth in the Federalist, but are not re- 
peated in his messages. 

James Monkoe. 

In his first message (1817) Monroe called attention 
to the unfinished condition of the Capitol and other 
public buildings and said: 

"The time seems to have arrived when this subject may be 
deemed worthy the attention of Congress on a scale adequate 
to national purposes. . . . Most nations have taken an in- 
terest and a pride in the improvement and ornament of their 
metropolis, and none were more conspicuous in this respect 
than the ancient republics. The policy which dictated the 
establishment of a permanent residence for the National Gov- 
ernment and the spirit in which it was commenced and has 
been prosecuted show that such improvement was thought 
worthy the attention of this nation. ' ' 

Monroe not only vigorously advocated the material 



68 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

development and adornment of the city and rebuked 
neglect of the capital and the lack of national sentiment 
and national pride which caused it, but he also gave 
sympathetic consideration to the political disability of 
the people of Washington, and to the status of the men 
of the city. 

After eighteen years of life the subject of govern- 
ment in the District became the text of presidential 
recommendation. In his second annual message, No- 
vember 16, 1818, Monroe says: 

"The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the 
attention of Congress. By the Constitution the power of leg- 
islation is exclusively vested in the Congress of the United 
States. In the exercise of this power, in which the people 
have no participation, Congress legislates in all cases directly 
on the local concerns of the District. As this is a departure, 
for a special purpose, from the general principles of our sys- 
tem, it may merit consideration whether an arrangement 
better adapted to the principles of our government and to the 
particular interests of the people may not be devised which 
will neither infringe the Constitution nor affect the object 
which the provision in question was intended to secure. The 
growing population, already considerable, and the increasing 
business of the District, which, it is believed, already inter- 
feres with the deliberations of Congress on great national 
concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this 
subject to your consideration." 

Monroe touches, in his last as in his first message, on 
the improvement of the capital's material condition. 
In his eighth annual message, December 7, 1824, he 
says: 

"It is thought that attention is also due to the improve- 
ment of this city. The communication between the public 
buildings and in various other parts and the grounds around 
these buildings require it. It is presumed also that the com- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 69 

pletion of the canal from the Tiber to the Eastern branch 
would have a very salutary effect. Great exertions have been 
made and expenses incurred by the citizens in improvements 
of various kinds, but those which are suggested belong ex- 
clusively to the government, or are of a nature to require ex- 
penditures beyond their resources. The public lots which are 
still for sale would, it is not doubted, be more, than adequate 
to these purposes." 

(Monroe, December 6, 1824, transmitted to the House 
a complete statement of the lots belonging to the 
United States which have been sold, etc., etc., and the 
purpose to which the money received therefor has been 
applied.) 

John Quincy Adams. 

Adams was personally interested in Washington on 
educational and scientific lines. In his first message 
(1825) he referred to Washington's earnest and re- 
peated recommendation of the establishment of a semi- 
nary of learning here, and said : 

"In surveying the city which has been honored with his 
name he would have seen the spot of earth which he had des- 
tined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as 
the site for a university, still bare and barren." 

He refers also to the proposed monument to Washing- 
ton in the capital, which had been ordered by Congress. 
In later messages he notes the beginning and comple- 
tion of a penitentiary here, and suggests suitable regu- 
lations for its government. 

Aetdbew Jackson. 

Jackson showed strong personal interest in Wash- 
ington—in the material improvement of the city; in 
the construction of a bridge across the Potomac; in 
recommending codification of its obsolete or obso- 



?o Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

lescent overlapping and contradictory laws; and in 
urging the extension of equitable political rights con- 
sistent with the Constitution. He alluded to these 
topics repeatedly in his messages. In his second an- 
nual message, December 6, 1830, he says : 

"Your attention is respectfully invited to the situation of 
the District of Columbia. Placed by the Constitution under 
the exclusive jurisdiction and control of Congress, this Dis- 
trict is certainly entitled to a much greater share of its con- 
sideration than it has yet received. There is a want of uni- 
formity in its laws, particularly in those of a penal character, 
which increases the expense of their administration and sub- 
jects the people to all the inconveniences which result from 
the operation of different codes in so small a territory. On 
different sides of the Potomac the same offense is punishable 
in unequal degrees, and the peculiarities of many of the early 
laws of Maryland and Virginia remain in force, notwithstand- 
ing their repugnance in some cases to the improvements which 
have superseded them in those states." 

Jackson was thus the first of the Presidents to call 
attention to the lack of uniformity in the capital's laws 
and, in fact, to suggest their codification. He made 
further reference to this subject in his third annual 
message, December 6, 1831. These early recommenda- 
tions suggest what has been attempted and in com- 
paratively recent years in part accomplished in codifi- 
cation of the District laws through the cooperation of 
the Board of Trade, the Bar Association and the local 
judges, and culminating in congressional enactment. 

Jackson was also the first of the Presidents to urge 
specifically representation of the District in Congress 
by an elected delegate, an experiment made later under 
the territorial form of government of the 70 's. He 
refers to this subject in his messages of 1830, 1831 and 
1835. 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 7 1 

1830 — "Besides a remedy for these evils which is loudly 
called for it is respectfully submitted whether a provision 
authorizing the election of a delegate to represent the wants 
of the citizens of this District on the floor of Congress is not 
due to them and to the character of our government. No por- 
tion of our citizens should be without a practical enjoyment 
of the principles of freedom, and there is none more impor- 
tant than that which cultivates a proper relation between the 
government and the governed. Imperfect as this must be in 
this case, yet it is believed that it would be greatly improved 
by representation in Congress with the same privileges that 
are allowed to the other territories of the United States." 
1831 — "I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the 
condition of the District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise 
in the framers of our Constitution to place the people of this 
District under the jurisdiction of the general government, but 
to accomplish the objects they had in view it is not necessary 
that this people should be deprived of all the privileges of 
self-government. Independently of the difficulty of inducing 
the representatives of distant states to turn their attention 
to projects of laws which are not of the highest interest to 
their constituents, they are not individually, nor in Congress 
collectively, well qualified to legislate over the local concerns 
of this District. Consequently its interests are much neg- 
lected and the people are almost afraid to present their griev- 
ances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which 
feels little sympathy in their local relations should in its at- 
tempt to make laws for them do more harm than good. Gov- 
erned by the laws of the states whence they were severed, the 
two shores of the Potomac within the ten miles square have 
different penal codes — not the present codes of Virginia and 
Maryland, but such as existed in those states at the time of 
the cession to the United States. As Congress will not form 
a new code, and as the people of the District cannot make one 
for themselves, they are virtually under two governments. Is 
it not just to allow them at least a delegate to Congress, if not 
a local legislature, to make laws for the District, subject to 
the approval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recom- 



72 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

mend the extension to them of every political right which 
their interests require and which may be compatible with the 
Constitution." 1835. — "I earnestly recommend the exten- 
sion of every political right to the citizens of this District 
which their true interests require, and which does not con- 
flict with the provisions of the Constitution. It is believed 
that the laws for the government of the District require re- 
visal and amendment, and that much good may be done by 
modifying the penal code so as to give uniformity to its pro- 
visions. ' ' 

In his messages of 1832, 1834 and 1836 Jackson 
showed his deep personal interest in the subject of a 
bridge across the Potomac river at Washington, which 
was built during his administration. 

During Jackson's administration the District went 
into bankruptcy financially and Congress came to its 
relief on the basis of Senator Southard's report and 
on the recommendation of President Jackson, who in 
his seventh annual message, December 7, 1835, said : 

"It is my duty to call the particular attention of Congress 
to the present condition of the District of Columbia. From 
whatever cause the great depression has arisen which now 
exists in the pecuniary concerns of this District, it is proper 
that its situation should be fully understood and such relief 
or remedies provided as are consistent with the powers of 
Congress. ' ' 

Maetin Van BuKEisr. 

Van Buren repeats Jackson's recommendations of 
wise and considerate treatment of the subject of laws 
for the District, calls attention to the lack of uniformity 
in these laws and urges a "liberal and even generous 
attention to the interests of the District and a thorough 
and careful revision of its local government." (First 
annual message, December 5, 1837.) 

There is also referred to in one of Van Buren 's mes- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. J5 

sages the subject of "a plan and estimate for the im- 
provement of Pennsylvania Avenue west of the Presi- 
dent's square, and for the construction of a stone 
bridge across Rock creek, etc." 

William Heney Haeeisoist. 

Harrison took up the question of the political status 
of the Washingtonian, referred to by Monroe and Van 
Buren and specifically treated by Jackson, and dis- 
cussed it sympathetically and earnestly. 

Inaugural address, March 4, 1841 : 

"Amongst the other duties of a delicate character which the 
President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the 
government of the territories of the United States. Those of 
them which are destined to become members of our great po- 
litical family are compensated by their rapid progress from 
infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary depriva- 
tion of their political rights. It is in this District only where 
American citizens are to be found who, under a settled policy, 
are deprived of many important political privileges without 
any inspiring hope as to the future. Their only consolation 
under circumstances of such deprivation is that of the devoted 
exterior guards of the camp — that their sufferings secure tran- 
quility and safety within. Are there any of their country- 
men who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to any other 
humiliations than those essentially necessary to the security 
of the object for which they were thus separated from their 
fellow-citizens? Are their rights alone not. to be guaranteed 
by the application of those great principles upon which all our 
constitutions are founded? We are told by the greatest of 
British orators and statesmen that at the commencement of 
the war of the revolution the most stupid men in England 
spoke of 'their American subjects.' Are there, indeed, citi- 
zens of any of our states who have dreamed of their subjects 
in the District of Columbia? Such dreams can never be 
realized by any agency of mine. The people of the District 



74 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the United 
States, but free American citizens. Being in the latter con- 
dition when the Constitution was formed, no words used in 
that instrument could have been intended to deprive them of 
that character. If there is anything in the great principle 
of unalienable rights so emphatically insisted upon in our 
Declaration of Independence, they could neither make, nor 
the United States accept, a surrender of their liberties and 
become the subjects — in other words, the slaves — of their 
former fellow-citizens. If this be true — and it will scarcely 
be denied by any one who has a correct idea of his own rights 
as an American citizen — the grant to Congress of exclusive 
jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be interpreted, 
so far as respects the aggregate people of the United States, 
as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congress the con- 
trolling power necessary to afford a free and safe exercise of 
the functions assigned to the general government by the Con- 
stitution. In all other respects the legislation of Congress 
should be adapted to their peculiar positions and wants and 
be conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own 
interests. ' ' 

Johist Tyler. 

Tyler, in his message of 1841, first suggests that 
Congress should contribute toward the expense of an 
efficient police, and in 1844 he recommends that Con- 
gress organize "an asylum for the insane who may be 
found from time to time sojourning within the Dis- 
trict." His message of 1843 contained the first "glit- 
tering generality" recommendation— that is, one which 
calls upon Congress for serious and favorable consid- 
eration of the ward of the nation, but makes no specific 
recommendation upon which Congress is asked to act. 

"Appointed by the Constitution its exclusive legislators, 
and forming in this particular the only anomaly in our sys- 
tem of government — of the legislative body being elected by 
others than those for whose advantage they are to legislate — 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 75 

you will feel a superadded obligation to look well into their 
condition and leave no cause for complaint or regret. The 
seat of government of our associated republics cannot but be 
regarded as worthy of your parental care. ' ' 

James K. Polk. 

In his first message (1845) Polk says: 

"The people of this District have no legislative body of their 
own and must confide their local as well as their general inter- 
terests to representatives in whose election they have no voice 
and over whose official conduct they have no control. Each 
member of the national legislature should consider himself as 
their immediate representative and should be the more ready 
to give attention to their interests and wants because he is not 
responsible to them. I recommend that a liberal and generous 
spirit may characterize your measures in relation to them. I 
shall be ever disposed to show a proper regard for their 
wishes and within constitutional limits shall at all times 
cheerfully cooperate with you for the advancement of their 
welfare." 

Zachaky Taylob. 

In his first and only message (1849) Taylor said: 

' ' Among the duties assigned by the Constitution to the gen- 
eral government is one of local and limited application, but 
not on that account the less obligatory. I allude to the trust 
committed to Congress as the exclusive legislator and sole 
guardian of the interests of the District of Columbia. I beg 
to commend these interests to your kind attention. As the 
national metropolis the city of Washington must be an object 
of general interest ; and founded, as it was, under the auspices 
of him whose immortal name it bears, its claims to the foster- 
ing care of Congress present themselves with additional 
strength. Whatever can contribute to its prosperity must 
enlist the feelings of its constitutional guardians and com- 
mand their favorable consideration." 



76 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Millaed Fillmore. 
Fillmore, in his first message, said : 

"This District, which has neither vote nor voice in your 
deliberations, looks to you for protection and aid, and I com- 
mend all its wants to your favorable consideration, with a full 
confidence that you will meet them, not only with justice, but 
with liberality. It should, be borne in mind that in this city, 
laid out by Washington and consecrated by his name, is located 
the capital of our nation, the emblem of our Union and the 
symbol of our greatness. Here also are situated all the public 
buildings necessary for the use of the government, and all 
these are exempt from taxation. It should be the pride of 
Americans to render this place attractive to the people of the 
whole republic and convenient and safe for the transaction of 
the public business and the preservation of the public records. 
The government should therefore bear a liberal proportion of 
the burdens of all necessary and useful improvements." 

Thus Fillmore, in 1850, makes a well-worded general 
recommendation of consideration for the capital, urges 
that "the government should bear a liberal proportion 
of the burden of all necessary and useful improve- 
ments" and specifically that Congress should make 
provision of "an abundant supply of pure water." 
He repeats the recommendation concerning water 
supply in 1852 and 1853. In the latter year the Meigs 
report on water supply was submitted. In 1852 Fill- 
more also added to his water supply proposition the 
recommendation of the construction of suitable bridges 
across the Potomac to replace those then recently de- 
stroyed by high water, of appropriations for grading 
and paving streets and avenues and embellishing the 
public grounds and of favorable consideration for the 
charitable institutions of the District. 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital, yy 

Feanklin Pieece. 

Pierce pushes along (1853) the insane asylum project 
suggested by Tyler, the water supply project suggested 
by Fillmore and (1855) the codification project first 
suggested by Jackson, and recommends to the care of 
Congress not only the District's "material, but also its 
moral interests, including education." In renewing in 
1854 previous recommendations concerning objects of 
deep interest to the District, he said : 

"Many of these objects partake largely of a national char- 
acter and are important independently of their relation to 
the prosperity of the only considerable organized community 
in the Union entirely unrepresented in Congress." 

James Buchanan. 

Buchanan's references to the District consist almost 
entirely of "glittering generality" recommendations 
in 1857, ,'58, '59 and '60. In 1858 he transmitted to 
Congress a message with a report of the Attorney- 
General on the vote of the District on a proposed codi- 
fication of the laws of the District, including his proc- 
lamation in accordance with which the election was 
held. (See Star, February 16, 1858, for result of code 
election: Washington and Georgetown, vote for code, 
1,506; against code, 3,448. From Star: 

1 ' The vote upon the new code yesterday was not a large one, 
the unpleasant nature of the walking, doubtless, deterring 
many from visiting the polls.") 1857 — "Without a represen- 
tative on the floor of Congress, they have for this very reason 
peculiar claims upon our just regard. To this I know from my 
long acquaintance with them they are well entitled." 1858 — 
"As the residence of Congress and the executive departments 
of the government, we cannot fail to feel a deep concern in its 
welfare. This is heightened by the high character and the 



7§ Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

peaceful and orderly conduct of its resident inhabitants." 
1859 — ' ' Surely the city bearing the name of "Washington and 
destined, I trust, for ages to be the capital of our united, free 
and prosperous confederacy, has strong claims on our favor- 
able regard." 

Abkaham Lincoln. 

Lincoln touched in the way of favorable recom- 
mendations upon the re-retrocession of the Virginia 
portion of the ten miles square, the abolition of slavery 
in the District, legislation for railroads to the city and 
local benevolent institutions. His reference to retro- 
cession is contained in his first annual message, 1861, 
and is in the following words: 

"The present insurrection shows, I think, that the exten- 
sion of this District across the Potomac at the time of estab- 
lishing the capital here was eminently wise, and consequently 
that the relinquishment of that portion of it which lies within 
the state of Virginia was unwise and dangerous. I submit 
for your consideration the expediency of regaining that part 
of the District and the restoration of the original boundaries 
thereof through negotiation with the state of Virginia." 

In the same message he refers to the hardships endured 
by the city as the result of civil war, as follows : 

"I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress 
the interests of the District of Columbia. The insurrection 
has been the cause' of much suffering and sacrifice to its in- 
habitants, and as they have no representative in Congress 
that body should not overlook their just claims upon the gov- 
ernment. ' ' 

Additional favorable recommendations by Lincoln 
(April 16, 1862) touched upon minor amendments to 
the act providing compensated emancipation of slaves 
in the District (January 21, 1863) ; relating to and 
urging the construction of certain railroads concen- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 79 

trating upon the city of Washington and (1863 and 
1864) commending the local benevolent institutions to 
the government's generous and fostering care. 

Andrew Johnson. 

Johnson (1866) repeats Jackson's recommendation 
of a territorial delegate in Congress for the District 
and argues for it; and in a message (January 5, 1867) 
vetoing an act to regulate the elective franchise in the 
District of Columbia which provided for unqualified 
negro suffrage in the District, though special elections 
held in Washington and Georgetown had shown an 
almost unanimous vote against such suffrage, he dis- 
cusses elaborately and interestingly the political status 
of the Washingtonian. (The local referendum vote, 
which showed only 35 in favor of the measure in Wash- 
ington and one in Georgetown, had not been authorized 
by Congress, and Johnson's veto was overruled and the 
bill became a law, notwithstanding the veto, on the day 
on which it was returned to Congress.) Johnson's ar- 
gument is especially strong in urging that Congress, 
in acting as local legislature, should take into consid- 
eration and as far as possible give effect to the wishes 
of the people of the District. It breathes the same 
spirit as President William Henry Harrison's inau- 
gural of 1841. 

Ulysses S. Grant. 

Grant, in 1871-72 and '73, briefly commends the terri- 
torial government of the District under act of Congress, 
February 21, 1871, and urges that Congress bear its 
just share of the expense of carrying out a judicious 
system of improvements. In 1873, for instance, he 
said : 

"Under the very efficient management of the governor and 



80 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

the board of public works of this District the city of Washing- 
ton is rapidly assuming the appearance of the capital of 
which the nation may well be proud. From being a most un- 
sightly place three years ago, disagreeable to pass through in 
summer in consequence of the dust arising from unpaved 
streets and almost impassable in the winter from the mud, it 
is now one of the most sightly cities in the country and can 
boast of being the best paved. The work has been done sys- 
tematically, the plans, grades, location of sewer, water and 
gas mains being determined upon before the work was com- 
menced, thus securing permanency when completed. I ques- 
tion whether so much has ever been accomplished before in 
any American city for the same expenditure. The govern- 
ment having large reservations in the city and the nation at 
large having an interest in their capital, I recommend a lib- 
eral policy toward the District of Columbia and that the gov- 
ernment should bear its just share of the expense of these im- 
provements. Every citizen visiting the capital feels a pride 
in its growing beauty and that he, too, is part owner in the 
investments made here." 

Grant was strongly of the opinion that Washington 
was naturally, and should be developed as, a national 
educational center. In 1873 he said : 

"I would suggest to Congress the propriety of promoting 
the establishment in this District of an institution of learning 
or university of the highest class by the donation of land. 
There is no place better suited for such an institution than the 
National Capital. There is no other place in which every 
citizen is so directly interested." 

In 1874, in transmitting the report of the Commis- 
sioners appointed under the act of June 20, 1874, to 
wind up the affairs of the District government, he says : 

"In my opinion the District of Columbia should be re- 
garded as the grounds of the National Capital in which the 
entire people are interested. I do not allude to this to urge 



Noyes : The Presidents and the National Capital. 8 1 

generous appropriations to the District, but to draw the atten- 
tion of Congress in framing a law for the government of the 
District to the magnificent scale on which the city was planned 
by the founders of the government ; the manner in which for 
ornamental purposes the reservations, streets and avenues 
were laid out and the proportion of the property actually pos- 
sessed by the general government. I think the proportion of 
the expenses of the government and improvements to be borne 
by the general government, the cities of Washington and 
Georgetown, and the county should be carefully and equi- 
tably denned." 

These brief references from Grant's messages call 
attention to the fact that in his administration an im- 
portant chapter of District history was written; the 
territorial government lived and died; the first (tem- 
porary) commission government went into operation. 
Grant's message of 1874 pnts in definite shape the 
proposition concerning the financial relations of nation 
and capital npon which the organic act of 1878 is based. 
Grant was a man of deeds rather than words, but in 
both respects he was one of the most vigorous and ef- 
fective champions of the Capital city among the Presi- 
dents. 

BUTHEKFOKD B. HaYES. 

Hayes (1877) earnestly urges a permanent adjust- 
ment by Congress of the financial relations between the 
United States and the District. He says : 

' ' The capital of the United States belongs to the nation, and 
it is natural that the American people should take pride in 
the seat of their national government and desire it to be an 
ornament to the country. Much has been done to render it 
healthful, convenient and attractive. But much remains to 
be done which its permanent inhabitants are not able and 
ought not to be expected to do. To impose upon them a large 
proportion of the cost required for public improvements 

7 



82 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

which are in a great measure planned and executed for the 
convenience of the government and of the many thousands of 
visitors from all parts of the country who temporarily reside 
at the capital of the nation is an evident injustice. Special 
attention is asked by the Commissioners of the District in 
their report, which is herewith transmitted, to the importance 
of a permanent adjustment by Congress of the financial rela- 
tions between the United States and the District involving the 
regular annual contributions by the United States of its just 
proportion of the expenses of the District government and of 
the outlay for all needed public improvements and such meas- 
ures of relief from the burden of taxation now resting upon 
the people of the District as in the wisdom of Congress may 
be deemed just." 

Again, in 1878, lie says : 

"The relative expenditures by the United States and the 
District for local purposes are contrasted, showing that the 
expenditures by the people of the District greatly exceed 
those of the general government. The exhibit is made in con- 
nection with estimates for the requisite repair of the defec- 
tive pavements and sewers of the city, which is a work of im- 
mediate necessity; and in the same connection a plan is pre- 
sented for the permanent funding of the outstanding securi- 
ties of the District." 

Another important project vigorously and repeatedly 
(1877, 1878, 1879, 1880) recommended by Hayes is that 
of reclamation of the Potomac flats. He also commends 
the suggestion of the organization of a board of char- 
ities, liberal appropriations for the public schools and 
for benevolent, reformatory and penal institutions of 
the District, for an increased water supply and for re- 
moval from their existing locations of the railroad 
depots. In 1879 he said : 

"The cause of popular education in the District of Colum- 
bia is surely entitled to the same consideration at the hands of 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 83 

the national government as in the several states and terri- 
tories to which munificent grants of the public lands have been 
made for the endowment of schools and universities." 

In 1880 he said: 

"The acts of Congress from time to time donating public 
lands to the several states and territories in aid of educa- 
tional interests have proved to be wise measures of public pol- 
icy resulting in great and lasting benefit. It would seem to 
be a matter of simple justice to extend the benefits of this 
legislation, the wisdom of which has been so fully vindicated 
by experience, to the District of Columbia." 

Most of Hayes' recommendations repeat and urge 
upon the attention of Congress recommendations made 
in the reports of the District Commissioners, and on 
the points above noted the Commissioners' reports, 
particularly that of 1878, should; be carefully noted, 
especially in relation to the discussion of the financial 
relations of the District and the national government 
and of national aid to local education. 

Chester A. Arthur. 

Arthur (1881-1884) briefly recommends reclamation 
of the Potomac flats, abolition of grade crossings and 
relocation of steam railroad depots and erection of a 
suitable building for District offices. In 1882 he said : . 

"I hope that however numerous and urgent may be the de- 
mands upon your attention the interests of this District will 
not be forgotten. The denial to its residents of the great right 
of suffrage in all its relations to national, state and municipal 
action imposes upon Congress the duty of affording them the 
best administration which its wisdom can devise." 

Grover Cleveland. 

Cleveland (1885-1888) briefly recommends legisla- 
tion eliminating grade crossings, for the construction 



84 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

of a District government building, for codification of 
the District laws and clothing the Commissioners "with 
the power to make within fixed limitation police regu- 
lations. I believe this power granted and carefully 
guarded would tend to subserve the good order of the 
municipality. ' ' 

Benjamin Habkison. 

Harrison (1889-1892) recommends the enactment of 
stringent restriction and limitation upon the liquor 
traffic, and the enactment of an adequate law relating to 
crimes against chastity. 

William McKinley. 

The great local feature of McKinley's messages is 
the centennial anniversary of the founding of the city 
of Washington as permanent capital of the United 
States. The appointment of a committee and an appro- 
priation for this purpose were urged by him in 1898; 
the subject was further treated, and in the same con- 
nection the memorial bridge project was advocated in 
the message of 1899; and there is a final reference to 
the centennial celebration in the message of 1900. Con- 
cerning the memorial bridge he said, in 1899 : 

"Congress at its last session appropriated $5,000 'to enable 
the chief of engineers of the army to continue the examination 
of the subject and to make or secure designs, calculations and 
estimates for a memorial bridge from the most convenient 
point of the Naval Observatory grounds or adjacent thereto 
across the Potomac river to the most convenient point of the 
Arlington estate property. ' In accordance with the provision 
of this act the chief of engineers has selected four eminent 
bridge engineers to submit competitive designs for a bridge 
combining the elements of strength and durability and such 
architectural embellishment and ornamentation as will fitly 
apply to the dedication, 'a memorial to American patriotism.' 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 85 

The designs are now being prepared and as soon as completed 
will be submitted to Congress by the Secretary of War. The 
proposed bridge will be a convenience to all the people from 
every part of the country who visit the national cemetery 
and an ornament to the capital of the nation and forever stand 
as a monument to American patriotism. I do not doubt that 
Congress will give to the enterprise still further proof of its 
favor and approval." 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt's recommendations in messages regular 
and special (1902-1909) concerning District affairs had 
with one exception reference to social and economic 
legislation and many of them were obviously not con- 
ceived so much to meet local needs as for the national 
benefit, using the national power of legislation for the 
capital to secure the passage of experimental laws 
which might serve as a model for the states of the 
Union in which the actual conditions existed which this 
legislation was primarily intended to meet. Of this 
character are Roosevelt's recommendations concerning 
labor legislation in general, severe child labor and fac- 
tory inspection laws and legislative prohibition against 
the working of married women in factories. Other 
recommendations like those for juvenile courts, public 
playgrounds, improvement of housing conditions, in- 
dustrial and technical education in the schools, etc., 
while proposed primarily in their national aspect, are 
of great importance to Washington also. In trans- 
mitting the report of the jail and workhouse commis- 
sion to Congress, Roosevelt gives vigorous and effective 
indorsement to their recommendations. The excep- 
tion to the rule that Roosevelt's local recommendations 
have had reference to social and economic legislation 
of a desirable and helpful character is in his indorse- 



86 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

ment of the Keynolds report recommending a change 
in the form of the District's government. 

William H. Taft. 

In his first annual message (December 7, 1909), Taft 
vigorously urged upon the attention of Congress con- 
ditions at the District jail. He said: 

"The Congress has taken action ... to the extent of ap- 
propriating funds and enacting the necessary legislation for 
the establishment of a workhouse and reformatory. No ac- 
tion, however, has been taken by the Congress with respect 
to the jail, the conditions of which are still antiquated and 
insanitary. I earnestly recommend the passage of a sufficient 
appropriation to enable a thorough remodeling of that insti- 
tution to be made without delay. It is a reproach to the Na- 
tional Capital that almost under the shadow of the Capitol 
dome prisoners should be confined in a building destitute of 
the ordinary decent appliances requisite to cleanliness and 
sanitary conditions." 

It has been noted that the first reference in a presi- 
dential message to a local municipal institution was to 
the jail by Thomas Jefferson. This institution should 
continue to be a subject of reference by the successive 
Presidents of to-day until the evil conditions in respect 
to it are cured. 

In his second message (December 6, 1910), Taft goes 
thoroughly and thoughtfully into practical recom- 
mendations designed to promote the city's welfare. 

He commends as "good" and "not extravagant" the 
municipal government of the District of Columbia; but 
holds that the fact that Washington is governed by 
Congress and that the citizens have no direct control 
through popular elections in District matters properly 
subjects the government to inquiry and criticism by its 
citizens manifested through the public press and other- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 8y 

wise and that "such criticism should command the care- 
ful attention of Congress." (In other words: Since 
Congress has exclusive power of legislation and the 
people of the city are unrepresented in it, Congress in 
exercising this power should give careful attention to 
public opinion, to the views and wishes of these un- 
represented constituents and legislate in local concerns 
in the light of this public opinion, giving to it the full- 
est and fairest consideration before action. See Har- 
rison and Johnson to same effect. This is sound doc- 
trine and applies as forcibly to the executive in making 
local appointments as to Congress in legislating.) Taft 
makes no recommendation of a change in local govern- 
ment unless the enlargement of the powers of the Com- 
missioners by restoring to them control of the public 
schools and conferring upon them the powers of a 
public service commission (both of which Taft spe- 
cifically urges) are to be construed as such changes. 

Taft shows in many ways the deep interest in the de- 
velopment of the capital's park system, which he and 
Mrs. Taft have manifested, especially in connection 
with Potomac speedway and park. In the interest of 
greater efficiency and economy in the work and of 
greater harmony in park development, he recommends 
that the jurisdiction of the office of public buildings and 
grounds be extended over all the parks and public 
grounds of the District of Columbia; and to prevent 
encroachments upon the park area that the erection of 
any permanent structure thereon be prohibited except 
by specific authority of Congress. He recommends the 
extension of Washington's park system across the 
Potomac, so as to include the land in Virginia "which 
lies along the Potomac river above the railroad bridge 
and across the Potomac, including Arlington cemetery, 
Fort Myer, the government experiment farm, the 



88 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

village of Eosslyn and the palisades of the Potomac, 
reaching to where the old District line intersects the 
river." He urges the elimination of notorious Willow 
Tree alley and the substitution for it of a little park 
and playground as the first step in a campaign against 
"centers in the interior squares where the very poor 
and the criminal classes as well huddled together in filth 
and noisome surroundings," and for the substitution 
in place of "these nuclei of disease and suffering and 
vice" of "small parks as breathing places and model 
tenements. ' ' In respect to the finances of the city Taf t 
recommends the enactment of the so-called Judson bill 
"which will insure the gradual extinguishment of the 
District's debt, while at the same time requiring that 
the many permanent improvements needed to complete 
a fitting capital city shall be carried on from year to 
year and at a proper rate of progress with funds de- 
rived from the rapidly increasing revenues." 

These specific recommendations above stated are in 
pursuance of a broad general policy in respect to the 
capital which Taft puts in the following words : 

"Washington is the capital of the nation and its main- 
tenance as a great and beautiful city under national control 
every lover of his country has much at heart ; and it should 
present in every way a model in respect of economy of ex- 
penditure, of sanitation, of tenement reform, of thorough pub- 
lic instruction, of the proper regulation of public utilities, of 
sensible and extended charities, of the proper care of crim- 
inals and of youth needing reform, of healthful playgrounds 
and opportunity for popular recreation and of a beautiful 
system of parks." 

Taft's suggestions have a wide scope, including wise 
and economical government, and the health, schooling, 
morals and external attractiveness of the capital. 
In his message of December 19, 1912, Taft renews 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 89 

several of his 1910 recommendations. He opposes 
franchise and elective government in Washington, 
saying : 

''The truth is this is a city governed by a popular body, to 
wit, the Congress of the United States, selected from the 
people of the United States who own Washington. The people 
who come here to live do so with the knowledge of the origin 
of the city and the restrictions, and therefore voluntarily give 
up the privilege of living in a city governed by popular vote. 
Washington is so unique in its origin and in its use for hous- 
ing and localizing the sovereignty of the nation that the people 
who live here must regard its peculiar character and must 
be content to subject themselves to the control of a body 
selected by all the people of all the nation." 

He suggests extension of the Commissioners' power to 
make police regulations, vigorously indorses park ex- 
tension on the L 'Enfant plan, new department build- 
ings and the union of Potomac Park, Eock Creek Park 
and Soldiers' Home grounds. The Lincoln Memorial 
and a memorial bridge from the base of the Lincoln 
Monument to Arlington, would, he says, be an appro- 
priate and symbolic expression of the Union of the 
North and South at the Capital of the Nation. 

Asr Absenal of Facts foe City's Defense. 

These presidential thoughts concerning Washington 
not only constitute an interesting record of what has 
been done, but a treasury and arsenal of facts, figures 
and opinions of value in reaching a wise conclusion as 
to what shall be done to develop and to promote the 
welfare of the capital. There is to be found in the mes- 
sages the suggestion of the beginnings and various 
stages of development of nearly every great project, 
material or political, affecting the capital. For in- 
stance, from the time of Washington, Adams, Jeffer- 



90 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

son and Monroe, sidelights are thrown on the circum- 
stances surrounding the creation of the capital by the 
nation, the responsibility of the nation for its city, and 
the financial relations of nation and capital in the Na- 
tional Capital partnership; first in discussion of the 
wise disposition of the capital's land endowment; then 
in Jackson's time, in connection with the city's bank- 
ruptcy of 1835, in the attempt of the people of the city 
to perform unaided the nation's task of capital de- 
velopment; and then under Grant and Hayes, in the 
wise readjustments created by the acts of 1874 and 
1878. (See Senator Southard's report in Jackson's ad- 
ministration and in connection with Jackson's sympa- 
thetic reference to the city's financial condition and 
needs.) 

Financial Eelations or Nation and Capital. 

Washington and Jefferson urged vigorously and re- 
peatedly the wise conservation of the capital's re- 
sources, especially its land endowment, out of which the 
public buildings were to be erected and the city de- 
veloped and improved. Said Washington: 

"I have no doubt if the remaining resources are properly 
cherished so as to prevent the loss of property by hasty and 
numerous sales, that all the buildings required for the accom- 
modation of the government of the United States may be com- 
pleted in season without aid from the national treasury." 

Said Jefferson : 

"The lots in the city . . . are deemed not only equal to 
the indemnification of the public, but to insure a considerable 
surplus to the city to be employed for its improvement, pro- 
vided they are offered for sale only in sufficient numbers to 
meet the existing demand. . . . These sums would require 
sales so far beyond the actual demand of the market that it is 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 91 

apprehended that the whole property may be thereby sacri- 
ficed and the residuary interest of the city entirely lost. . . . 
If indulgence for the funds can be admitted, they will prob- 
ably form a resource of great and permanent value, and these 
embarrassments have teen produced only by overstrained 
exertions to provide accommodations for the government of 
the Union." 

Said Monroe in urging national liberality in capital 
development : 

' ' Great exertions have been made and expenses incurred by 
the citizens in improvements of various kinds ; but those which 
are suggested belong exclusively to the government, or are 
of a nature to require expenditures beyond their resources. 
The public lots which are still for sale would, it is not doubted, 
be more than adequate to these purposes. ' ' 

Said Jackson in suggesting sympathetic consider- 
ation of the financial conditions of the capital, which 
had bankrupted itself in the attempt to perform un- 
aided the nation's task of capital-making: 

' ' From whatever cause the great depression has arisen which 
now exists in the pecuniary concerns of the District, it is 
proper that its situation should be fully understood and such 
relief or remedies provided as are consistent with the powers 
of Congress." 

Van Buren said : 

"I am well aware of the various subjects of greater magni- 
tude and immediate interest that press themselves on the con- 
sideration of Congress, but I believe that there is not one that 
appeals more directly to its justice than a liberal and even 
generous attention to the interests of the District of Colum- 
bia." 

Said Fillmore concerning the capital, urging that its 
needs be met, "not only with justice, but with liber- 
ality": 



92 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"Here also are situated all the public buildings necessary 
for the use of the government, and all these are exempt from 
taxation. It should be the pride of Americans to render this 
place attractive to the people of the whole republic and con- 
venient and safe for the transaction of the public business and 
the preservation of the public records. The government 
should therefore bear a liberal proportion of the burdens of 
all necessary and useful improvements." 

Said Lincoln : 

' ' The insurrection has been the cause of much sacrifice and 
suffering to its inhabitants, and as they have no representa- 
tive in Congress that body should not overlook their just 
claims upon the government." 

Said Grant (1871) : 

"Under the direction of the territorial officers a system of 
improvements has been inaugurated by means of which Wash- 
ington is rapidly becoming a city worthy of the nation's cap- 
ital. The citizens of the District having voluntarily taxed 
themselves to a large amount for the purpose of contributing 
to the adornment of the seat of government, I recommend 
liberal appropriations on the part of Congress in order that 
the government may bear its just share of the expense of 
carrying out a judicious system of improvements;" (1872) 
"The nation, being a large owner of property in the city, 
should bear with the citizens of the District its just share of 
the expense of these improvements;" (1873) "The govern- 
ment, having large reservations in the city and the nation at 
large having an interest in their capital, I recommend a lib- 
eral policy toward the District of Columbia, and that the gov- 
ernment should bear its just share of the expense of these im- 
provements. Every citizen visiting the capital feels a pride 
in its growing beauty and that he, too, is part owner in the in- 
vestments made here;" (1874) "I think the proportion of the 
expenses of the government and improvements to be borne by 
the general government, the cities of Washington and George- 
town and the county should be carefully and equitably de- 
fined." 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 93 

Said Hayes (1877) : 

"The capital of the United States belongs to the nation, 
and it is natural that the American people should take pride 
in the seat of their national government and desire it to be an 
ornament to the country. Much has been done to render it 
healthful, convenient and attractive but much remains to be 
done which its permanent inhabitants are not able and ought 
not to be expected to do. To impose upon them a large pro- 
portion of the cost required for public improvements, which 
are in a great measure planned and executed for the conveni- 
ence of the government and of the many thousands of visitors 
from all parts of the country who temporarily reside at the 
capital of the nation, is an evident injustice. Special atten- 
tion is asked by the Commissioners of the District ... to the 
the importance of a permanent adjustment by Congress of the 
financial relations between the United States and the District, 
involving the regular annual contribution by the United 
States of its just proportion of the expenses of the District 
government and of the outlay for all needed public improve- 
ments and such measures of relief from the burden of taxa- 
tion now resting upon the people of the District as in the wis- 
dom of Congress may be deemed just;" (1878) "The relative 
expenditures by the United States and the District for local 
purposes are contrasted, showing that the expenditures by the 
people of the District greatly exceed those of the general gov- 
ernment. ' ' 

Taft (1910) urged financial legislation for the District, 
"which will insure the gradual extinguishment of the 
District's debt while at the same time requiring that 
the many permanent improvements needed to complete 
a fitting capital city shall be carried on from year to 
year and at a proper rate of progress with funds de- 
rived from the rapidly increasing revenues." 

Washington as an Educational Centek. 

Concerning Washington as the site of a national uni- 
versity and as a natural educational center of the re- 



94 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

public, George Washington in his messages as well as 
in his letters and his will, Jefferson and Madison in 
messages, Monroe in his letter commending Columbian 
College, John Quincy Adams, Grant and Hayes have 
put themselves vigorously on record. These men did 
not assent for a moment to the doctrine propounded 
not long ago through influences hostile to the capital 
that Washington is not a natural educational center 
even for the District of Columbia, and that Johns Hop- 
kins and the University of Virginia suffice to meet the 
local needs of higher education. [See messages 
(George Washington), vol. 1, pages 66 and 202; (Jef- 
ferson), vol. 1, pages 409-410; (Madison), vol. 1, pages 
485, 568, 576. 

See also messages Pierce (1858), concerning "Moral 
interests, including education"; Grant (1873), Univer- 
sity with land grant at Washington; Hayes (1877 to 
1879), Land grants, etc., to public education in Wash- 
ington.] 

Miscellaneous Municipal Concerns. 

A few other recommendations for the material wel- 
fare of the District are distributed as follows among 
the Presidents : Jail— Jefferson, Eoosevelt, Taft. Codi- 
fication of laws— Jackson (1830, etc.), Van Buren 
(1837), Pierce (1855), Buchanan (1858), Cleveland 
(1886, 1888). Potomac bridges -Jackson (1832, 1834 
and 1836), Fillmore (1852), Cleveland (1886), McKin- 
ley (1899), Taft (1912). Water supply-Fillmore 
(1850, 1852, 1853), Pierce (1853), Hayes (1880). In- 
sane Asylum— Tyler (1843), Pierce (1853). Police- 
Tyler (1841). Reclamation of Potomac flats— Hayes 
(1877 to 1880). Public improvements, streets, public 
grounds, canals, etc.— Monroe (1824), Fillmore (1852), 
Grant (1873, etc.). Charitable institutions— Fillmore 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 95 

(1852), Lincoln (1863-4), Hayes (1878). Board of 
charities— Hayes (1877). Railroads in Washington- 
Lincoln (1861), Hayes (1878), Arthur (1881). New 
District building— Arthur (1884), Cleveland (1886). 
Liquor laws— Cleveland (1885 to 1888), Harrison (1889 
to 1892). Sewerage commission— Harrison (1889). 
National Capital centennial— McKinley (1898, 1899, 
1900). Social and economic legislation— Roosevelt, 
Taft. Park extension— Taft. 

The Presidents and the People of Washington. 

The Presidents have not neglected to consider the 
welfare either of the national city, with its streets, 
parks, buildings and monuments, or of the people com- 
posing the real city, the National Capital community. 
And in thinking wisely and sympathetically concerning 
this community they have planned to meet not only the 
people's moral and intellectual needs, but to satisfy so 
far as the national interests permit their political 
rights as American citizens. It is only of late years 
that the monstrous doctrine is propounded that the 
national interest requires that 350,000 or half a million 
or a million of Americans at the seat of government 
shall be forever de-Americanized, remaining perpetual 
aliens so far as representation in the legislative and 
executive branches of government is concerned, and 
less than aliens (the Supreme Court has said) in their 
relation to the judicial branch of the national govern- 
ment. 

Concerning the government of the District and the 
political rights of its people are the references of 
Monroe (1818), Jackson (1830, 1831 and 1835), Van 
Buren, William Henry Harrison (1841), Johnson 
(1866), Grant (1871, 1872, 1873, 1874), Hayes (1877 to 
1880, inclusive), Cleveland (concerning police regula- 



96 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

tions) 1886, Eoosevelt (transmitting Reynolds report)', 
1908, and Taft (in opposition to local franchise), 1912. 
In the same connection are to be considered the local 
referendum vote under Buchanan (1858), and John- 
son's veto message (1866), discussing the right of the 
people of the capital to cast a referendum vote which 
should be respected by Congress. 

Peculiae Political Relation and Obligation of 

Nation to Capital. 

Practically all of the Presidents either by word or 
act or both declare that the fact that the District is 
governed by a legislature which it has not chosen and 
in which it is not even fractionally represented, imposes 
upon this legislature a peculiar obligation of sympa- 
thetic consideration of the District's welfare, compell- 
ing, according to some of the Presidents, the careful 
ascertainment and the scrupulous carrying out of the 
reasonable wishes concerning its own local affairs of 
the unrepresented community itself. 

The thought that the constitutional power of ex- 
clusive legislation conferred upon Congress imposes a 
special and peculiar obligation is expressed in varying 
forms of words by many Presidents. For example, Van 
Bur en (1837) said: 

"Your attention has heretofore been frequently called to 
the affairs of the District of Columbia and I should not again 
ask it did not their entire dependence on Congress give them 
a constant claim upon its notice. Separated by the Constitu- 
tion from the rest of the Union, limited in extent and aided 
by no legislature of its own, it would seem to be a spot where 
a wise and uniform system of local government might have 
been easily adopted. This District has, however, unfortu- 
nately been left to linger behind the rest of the Union." 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 97 

Polk (1845) said: 

"The people of this District have no legislative body of 
their own and must confide their local as well as their general 
interests to representatives in whose election they have no 
voice and over whose official conduct they have no control. 
Each member of the national legislature should consider him- 
self as their immediate representative and should be the more 
ready to give attention to their interests and wants because he 
is not responsible to them. I recommend that a liberal and 
generous spirit may characterize your measures in relation to 
them. I shall be ever disposed to show a proper regard for 
their wishes and within constitutional limits shall at all times 
cheerfully cooperate with you for the advancement of their 
welfare. ' ' 

Fillmore (1849) said: 

"This District which has neither vote nor voice in your 
deliberations looks to you for protection and aid and I com- 
mend all its wants to your favorable consideration with a full 
confidence that you will meet them not only with justice but 
with liberality." 

Buchanan (1857) said: 

"Without a representative on the floor of Congress they 
have for this very reason peculiar claims upon our just re- 
gard. ' ' 

Lincoln (1861) said: 

"I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress 
the interests of the District of Columbia. The insurrection 
has been the cause of much suffering and sacrifice to its in- 
habitants and as they have no representative in Congress that 
body should not overlook their just claims upon the govern- 
ment. ' ' 

Hayes (1879) : 

"The Constitution having invested Congress with supreme 
and exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia its 



98 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

citizens must of necessity look to Congress alone for all need- 
ful legislation affecting their interests; and as the territory 
of this District is the common property of the people of the 
United States who equally with its resident citizens are in- 
terested in the prosperity of their capital, I cannot doubt that 
you will he amply sustained by the general voice of the 
country in any measure you may adopt for this purpose. ' ' 

Harrison (1889) : 

"The interests of the people of the District of Columbia 
should not be lost sight of in the pressure for measures affect- 
ing the whole country. Having no legislature of its own, 
either municipal or general, its people must look to Congress 
for the regulation of all those concerns that in the states are 
the subject of local control. Our whole people have an in- 
terest that the National Capital should be made attractive and 
beautiful and, above all, that its repute for social order should 
be well maintained." 

Political Considekation" Based on National Peide. 

In the preceding quotations Hayes and Harrison 
combined with their pleas for fair play to the unrepre- 
sented District appeals to the national pride in the 
capital. Similar appeals are scattered through the mes- 
sages of the Presidents, even in administrations prior 
to the period when the nation began to make the capital 
physically a worthy object of national pride. John 
Adams urged Congress in legislating for it to "con- 
sider it as the capital of a great nation, advancing with 
unexampled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth 
and in population. ' ' In urging public building develop- 
ment "on a scale adequate to national purposes," 
Monroe declared: 

"Most nations have taken an interest and a pride in the 
improvement and ornament of their metropolis, and none 
were more conspicuous in this respect than the ancient repub- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 99 

lies. The policy which dictated the establishment of a per- 
manent residence for the national government and the spirit 
in which it was commenced and has been prosecuted show 
that such improvement was thought worthy the attention of 
this nation." 

Zachary Taylor (1849) said: 

"As the national metropolis the city of Washington must 
be an object of general interest; and founded as it was, under 
the auspices of him whose immortal name it bears, its claims 
to the fostering care of Congress present themselves with ad- 
ditional strength. Whatever can contribute to its prosper- 
ity must enlist the feelings of its constitutional guardians and 
command their favorable consideration." 

Fillmore (1850) said: 

"It should be borne in mind that in this city, laid out by 
Washington and consecrated by his name, is located the capi- 
tal of our nation, the emblem of our union and the symbol of 
our greatness. It should be the pride of Americans to render 
this place attractive to the people of the whole republic. ' ' 
Buchanan (1858-9) said: 

"As the residence of Congress and the executive depart- 
ments we can not fail to feel a deep concern in its welfare. 
. . . Surely the city bearing the name of Washington, and 
destined, I trust, for ages to be the capital of our united, free 
and prosperous, confederacy, has strong claims on our favor- 
able regard." 

Grant (1873) said: 

"The city of Washington is rapidly assuming the appear- 
ance of a capital of which the nation may well be proud. 
From being a most unsightly place three years ago ... it is 
now one of the most sightly cities in the country and can 
boast of being the best paved. . . . Every citizen visiting the 
capital feels a pride in its growing beauty, and that he, too, is 
part owner in the investments made here." 



ioo Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Hayes (1877) said: 

"The capital of the United States belongs to the nation, 
and it is natural that the American people should take pride 
in the seat of their national government and desire it to be 
an ornament to the country. Much has been done to render 
it healthful, convenient and attractive, but much remains to 
be done which its permanent inhabitants are not able and 
ought not to be expected to do." 

McKinley (1898), concerning the Washington centen- 
nial: 

"On the 17th of November, 1800, the national Congress 
met here for the first time and assumed exclusive control of 
the federal district and city. This interesting event assumes 
all the more significance when we recall the circumstances at- 
tending the choosing of the site, the naming of the capital in 
honor of the father of his country, and the interest taken by 
him in the adoption of plans for its future development on a 
magnificent scale. These original plans have been wrought 
out with a constant progress and a signal success even beyond 
anything their framers could have foreseen. The people of 
the country are justly proud of the distinctive beauty and 
government of the capital, and of the rare instruments of 
science and education which here find their natural home. 
(1900) The transfer of the government to this city is a fact of 
great historical interest. Among the people there is a feel- 
ing of genuine pride in the capital of the republic." 

Roosevelt (1902) : 

"The city should be a model in all respects for all the cities 
of the country." (1904) "That the National Capital should 
be made a model for other municipalities is an ideal which 
appeals to all patriotic citizens everywhere, and such a special 
commission might map out and organize the city's future de- 
velopment, in lines of civic social service, just as Maj. L 'En- 
fant and the recent park commissions planned the arrange- 
ment of the streets and parks. ' ' 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 101 

Taft (1910) : 

''Washington is the capital of the nation and its mainte- 
nance as a great and beautiful city every lover of his country 
has much at heart, and it should present in every way a 
model, etc." 

Put Youbself iisr His Place. 

Some Presidents have urged that the peculiar obliga- 
tion upon this legislature, not chosen by the District, 
thus generally recognized, is to act in respect to local 
legislation precisely as if it had been so chosen ; that is, 
it should represent in such legislation reasonable-public 
opinion among its capital constituents, carefully ascer- 
taining not only local needs but local public opinion and 
meeting those needs in a manner conforming to that 
local sentiment so far as the national interest permits. 
(For example, having ascertained how much money 
should be raised by local taxation for capital main- 
tenance, to permit the taxpayers to raise the money in 
the way which they find most desirable and least bur- 
densome. If the community wishes to raise the bulk 
of its tax money by a tax on realty and only a little by 
the tax on personalty, and desires to raise none of it by 
a tax on the intangible personalty of individuals, the 
tax legislation by Congress should be so framed, since 
it would be so shaped if the chosen representatives of 
local public opinion were enacting the legislation.) 

The first President to urge specifically the applica- 
tion of the injunction, "Put yourself in his place," to 
legislation for the District by a legislature not chosen 
by it was William Henry Harrison in his inaugural ad- 
dress. He said (1841) : 

"The people of the District of Columbia are not the sub- 
jects of the people of the United States, hut free American 
citizens. Being in the latter condition when the Constitution 



102 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

was framed, no words used in that instrument could have 
been intended to deprive them of that character. If there is 
anything in the great principle of inalienable rights so em- 
phatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence 
they could neither make, nor the United States accept, a sur- 
render of their liberty and become the subjects— in other 
words the slaves — of their former fellow citizens. If this be 
true — and it will scarcely be denied by any one who has a 
correct idea of his own rights as an American citizen — the 
grant to Congress of exclusive jurisdiction in the District of 
Columbia can be interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate 
people of the United States, as meaning nothing more than 
to allow to Congress the controlling power necessary to accord 
a free and safe exercise of the functions assigned to the gen- 
eral government by the Constitution. In all other respects 
the legislation of Congress should be adapted to their peculiar 
position and wants and be conformable with their deliberate 
opinions of their own interests." 

In a veto message (1867), every word of which should 
be read and studied, President Johnson elaborated this 
doctrine, saying in part : 

"It should also be remembered that in legislating for the 
District of Columbia under the federal Constitution the rela- 
tion of Congress to its inhabitants is analogous to that of a 
legislature to the people of the state under their own local 
constitution. It does not, therefore, seem to be asking too 
much that in matters pertaining to the District Congress 
should have a like respect for the will and interest of its in- 
habitants as is entertained by a state legislature for the wishes 
and prosperity of those for whom they legislate. The spirit 
of our Constitution and the genius of our government require 
that in regard to any law which is to affect and have a perma- 
nent bearing upon a people their will should exert at least a 
reasonable influence upon those who are acting in the capac- 
ity of their legislators. . . . Nor does it accord with our re- 
publican ideas that the principle of self-government should 
lose its force when applied to the residents of the District 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 103 

merely because their legislators are not like those of the states, 
responsible through the ballot to the people for whom they 
are the law-making power. . . . While, indeed, the residents 
of the seat of government are not citizens of any state and 
are not, therefore, allowed a voice in the electoral college or 
representation in the councils of the nation, they are, never- 
theless, American citizens, entitled as such to every guaranty 
of the Constitution, to every benefit of the laws and to every 
right which pertains to citizens of our common country. In 
all matters, then, affecting their domestic affairs the spirit of 
our democratic form of government demands that their wishes 
should he consulted and respected and they taught to feel 
that although not permitted practically to participate in na- 
tional concerns they are nevertheless under a paternal gov- 
ernment regardful of their rights, mindful of their wants and 
solicitous for their prosperity. It was evidently contemplated 
that all local questions would be left to their decision at least 
to an extent that would not be incompatible with the object 
for which Congress was granted exclusive legislation over the 
seat of government. ... As a general rule sound policy re- 
quires that the legislature should yield to the wishes of the 
people, when not inconsistent with the Constitution and the 
laws. The measures suited to one community might not be 
well adapted to the condition of another ; and the persons best 
qualified to determine such questions are those whose interests 
are to be directly affected by any proposed law." 

President Taft in substance indorses this doctrine 
in his message of 1910, in which he holds that the fact 
that Washington is governed by Congress and that the 
citizens have no direct control throngh popular elec- 
tion in District matters properly subjects the govern- 
ment to inquiry and criticism by its citizens and that 
"such criticism should command the careful attention 
of Congress." 

Some of the Presidents in pointing out the obligation 
imposed by existing legal conditions have treated these 
conditions as unchangeable. Other Presidents have in- 



104 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

dicated that as the population, resources and other con- 
ditions of the local community changed there would be 
changes in its political relations to the nation. Some 
have thought that the change would be in increased 
representation in municipal government. Others have 
insisted upon representation in the national govern- 
ment to the extent that the population, intelligence and 
resources warranted as an equitable and inalienable 
right of the local community. Before the District at- 
tained a population equal to that which in a state called 
for one representative in the House, these Presidents 
urged that the District should be represented in Con- 
gress by a territorial delegate on grounds which in con- 
sistency would give it full representation when the 
population and the other conditions of representation 
in the states had been secured. 

National, Eepeesentatioist foe the Washingtonian. 

Monroe's suggestion of 1818 was of a change from 
government of the District by a Congress "in which 
the people have no participation" involving "a de- 
parture for a special purpose from the general prin- 
ciples of our system" to "an arrangement better 
adapted to the principles of our government and to the 
particular interests of the people . . . which will 
neither infringe the Constitution nor affect the object 
which the provision in question was intended to se- 
cure." 

Monroe's suggestion in effect urges either legislation 
on local concerns by a legislature other than Congress 
in which the District shall be represented or by a Con- 
gress in which the District shall have representation. 

Jackson vigorously and repeatedly (1830, 1831 and 
1835) urged representation of the District in Congress. 
Since the District had not the population which was 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 105 

entitled to one representative in the House, he recom- 
mended that this representation should be by terri- 
torial delegate; or else in "a local legislature to make 
laws for the District subject to the approval or rejec- 
tion of Congress." 

The grounds on which he urges this representation 
are broad enough to cover full-fledged representation 
in Congress when the essential conditions of popula- 
tion, resources and intelligence exist in the District, and 
when that representation is made compatible with the 
constitution either by amendment or by judicial de- 
cision that such amendment is unnecessary. 

He says (1830) that such representation for the Dis- 
trict is 

"due to the character of our government. No portion of our 
citizens should be without a practical enjoyment of the prin- 
ciples of freedom and there is none more important than that 
which cultivates a proper relation between the governors and 
the governed." 

In 1831 he declares : 

"It was doubtless wise in the framers of our Constitution 
. to place the people of the District under the jurisdiction of 
the general government. But to accomplish the objects they 
had in view it is not necessary that this people should be de- 
prived of all the privileges of self-government. ... Is it not 
just to allow them at least a delegate to Congress if not a 
local legislature to make laws for the District subject to the ap- 
proval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recommend the 
extension to them of every political right which their interests 
require and which may be compatible with the Constitution." 

Andrew Johnson (1866) renewed Jackson's specific 
recommendation on grounds which would give the Dis- 
trict full-fledged representation in Congress when its 
population and other conditions entitled it to such rep- 
resentation. Johnson said: 



106 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"The District of CoIiim"bia under existing laws is not en- 
titled to that representation in the national councils which 
from our earliest history has been uniformly accorded to each 
territory established from time to time within our limits. It 
maintains peculiar relations to Congress, to whom the Con- 
stitution has granted the power of exercising exclusive legis- 
lation over the seat of government. Our fellow citizens re- 
siding in the District whose interests are thus confided to the 
special guardianship of Congress exceed in number the popu- 
lation of several of our territories and no just reason is per- 
ceived why a delegate of their choice should not be admitted 
to a seat in the House of Representatives. No move seems so 
appropriate and effectual of enabling them to make known 
their peculiar conditions and wants and of securing the local 
legislation adapted to them." 

In a veto message in 1867, Johnson sketched briefly 
and interestingly the political history of the District, 
saying : 

"The great object of placing the seat of government under 
the exclusive legislation of Congress was to secure the entire 
independence of the general government from undue state 
influence and to enable it to discharge without danger of in- 
terruption or infringement of its authority the high func- 
tions for which it was created by the people. . . . "While the 
residents of the seat of government are not citizens of any 
state and are not, therefore, allowed a voice in the electoral 
college or representation in the councils of the nation, they 
are, nevertheless, American citizens, entitled as such to every 
guaranty of the Constitution, to every benefit of the laws, 
and to every right which pertains to the citizens of our com- 
mon country. ... It was evidently contemplated that all 
local questions would be left to their decision at least to an 
extent that would not be incompatible with the object for 
which Congress was granted exclusive legislation over the seat 
of government. When the Constitution was yet under con- 
sideration it was assumed by Mr. Madison that its inhabitants 
would be allowed 'a municipal legislature for local purposes, 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 107 

derived from their own suffrage.' When for the first time 
Congress in the year 1800 assembled at Washington Presi- 
dent Adams in his speech at its opening reminded the two 
houses that it was for them to consider whether the local 
powers over the District of Columbia, vested by the Constitu- 
tion in the Congress of the United States, should be imme- 
diately exercised, and he asked them to 'consider it as the 
capital of a great nation, advancing with unexampled rapid- 
ity in arts, in commerce, in wealth and in population.' . . . 
Three years had not elapsed when Congress was called upon 
to determine the propriety of retroceding to Maryland and 
Virginia the jurisdiction of the territory which they had re- 
spectively relinquished to the government of the United 
States. It was urged on the one hand that exclusive jurisdic- 
tion was not necessary or useful to the government; that it 
deprived the inhabitants of the District of their political 
rights; that much of the time of Congress was consumed in 
legislation pertaining to it; that its government was expen- 
sive ; that Congress was not competent to legislate for the Dis- 
trict, because the members were strangers to its local concerns, 
and that it was an example of a government without represen- 
tation — an experiment dangerous to the liberties of the states. 
On the other hand, it was held, among other reasons, and suc- 
cessfully, that the Constitution, the acts of cession of Vir- 
ginia and Maryland and the act of Congress accepting the 
grant all contemplated the exercise of exclusive legislation 
by Congress, and that its usefulness if not its necessity was 
inferred from the inconvenience which was felt for want of it 
by the Congress of the confederation ; that the people them- 
selves, who, it was said, had been deprived of their political 
rights, had not complained and did not desire a retrocession ; 
that the evil might he remedied by giving them a representa- 
tion in Congress when the District should become sufficiently 
populous, and in the meantime a local legislature ; that if the 
inhabitants had not political rights they had great political 
influence; that the trouble and expense of legislating for 
the District would not be great, but would diminish and might 
in a great measure be avoided by a local legislature, and that 



108 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Congress could not retrocede the inhabitants without their 
consent. Continuing to live substantially under the laws that 
existed at the time of their cession, and such changes only hav- 
ing been made as were suggested by themselves, the people 
of the District have not sought by a local legislature that 
which has generally been willingly conceded by the Con- 
gress of the nation." 

In Grant's administration the District asked for and 
was given a territorial form of government and during 
the same administration Congress took it away. 

Since 1880 the District has had a population greater 
than that which in a state is entitled to one representa- 
tive in the House, and its population is now greater 
than that of six states. Conditions and tendencies indi- 
cate that it will attain superiority in population over a 
few other states which now exceed it. 

If, on the principles laid down by Monroe, Jackson, 
Johnson and Grant, congressional representation 
should be given to the District, such representation 
would give to the District voting representatives and 
senators in Congress, and not merely a voteless terri- 
torial delegate. An amendment to the Constitution 
giving the capital community this just representation 
has been shaped for consideration by Congress and the 
state legislatures. 

The last two Presidents who have discussed the 
political status of the Washingtonian have not favored 
any increase of his political privileges. Eoosevelt in- 
dorsed the Eeynolds scheme of the substitution of a 
single executive head for the three Commissioners, and 
of the abrogation of the local residence requirement 
for eligibility to appointment, thus proposing to destroy 
the only remaining vestige of even indirect represen- 
tation now enjoyed by the Washingtonian in his local 
government. Taft thought citizens waived their politi- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 109 

cal rights by voluntarily coming here to live, knowing 
the conditions. 

What Washington Thinks op the Presidents. 

Coupled with these references to what Presidents 
have thought and said of Washington are scattered sug- 
gestions of what Washington (or Washingtonians) 
have thought and said of some Presidents. The city's 
opinion concerning the President was expressed during 
many administrations, as we have seen, by resolution 
of the municipal legislature concerning the retiring 
President. That this expression of opinion was not 
perfunctory is suggested by Van Buren's experience, 
whose resolution of thanks was vetoed by Mayor Seaton 
on the ground that Van Buren had been no friend of 
the District and had done nothing for which he should 
be thanked. 

During President Taft's administration two dinners, 
tendered by the citizens of Washington and cordially 
accepted by the President, gave the opportunity of con- 
ference and exchange of opinions, and this custom, in- 
augurated by President Taft, may, if continued by his 
successors, take the place with advantage to everybody 
in interest of the formal interchange of addresses of 
the early days. 

Though the capital community is voteless the opin- 
ions of Washingtonians concerning public men are not 
without weight and influence. It is a cosmopolitan city, 
with the national legislature as its local legislature. 
The opportunity is afforded to study and compare the 
men of brains and action of the nation. There is much 
in the conditions to make the Washingtonian judgment 
upon public men intelligent and influenced by a mini- 
mum of bias. There is also opportunity of effectively 
expressing these opinions. Eepresentatives of every 



1 10 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

subdivision of America are here in Washington. As 
Washingtonians they absorb the local sentiment and 
impart it to a greater or less degree to the communities 
which they represent or from which they come. Espe- 
cially is this true of the newspaper representatives of 
American states and cities at the capital. These are as 
a rule men of brains, experience and sound judgment. 
They are generally retained here for long periods. 
What they come to think as Washingtonians of public 
men is reflected, directly or indirectly, consciously or 
unconsciously, all over the United States. 

Summarizing, the relations between Presidents and 
Washingtonians have been cordial and marked by re- 
ciprocal regard. The President, though not a part of 
the municipal corporation which directly manages local 
executive concerns, is, as the appointive power of the 
official heads of this corporation and through his veto, 
an important factor in the exclusive legislative power 
of Congress in respect to the capital. These powers of 
the President are coupled with duties and responsi- 
bilities and in most administrations this fact has been 
duly recognized. 

The relations of Washington to the representatives 
of the federal government have as a rule been closer 
and more cordial with the executive than with the legis- 
lative branch. With Congress there has been too often 
misunderstanding, reciprocal misjudgment and re- 
crimination ; though on all vital questions Congress has 
in the end treated the nation's city with wisdom and 
fairness, and will undoubtedly continue to do so to the 
end of the chapter. The President of the United States 
can do no finer thing than to use the powers and op- 
portunities of his position to bring together the mem- 
bers of the National Capital partnership in vigorous, 
cordial co-operation for the city's wholesome develop- 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital, ill 

ment. There is no limit to what can be done in the wise 
upbuilding of the nation's city, if the national and local 
partners will work harmoniously and earnestly together 
in its interest, and in fulfillment of their constitutional 
obligation. 

This skeleton summary of what the Presidents have 
said and done concerning Washington shows that out 
of the mouth of the first man of the republic in suc- 
cessive administrations have come at one time or an- 
other every representation concerning the nation's ob- 
ligation toward its capital and concerning neglects or 
violations of that obligation, and every complaint of 
grievances unjustly suffered and every petition for 
their equitable redress, which when voiced by the 
Washingtonian himself have too often caused him to 
be denounced as an impudent, mercenary and men- 
dacious mendicant. 

The effect of this showing of presidential thought 
and action should be to shame every statesman, from 
President down, who either disdainfully neglects or 
from some petty personal motive is actively hostile to 
the nation's city. If Washington and Jefferson, Jack- 
son, Lincoln and Grant could, without stooping and 
without loss of dignity, interest themselves actively in 
the concerns of the nation 's city, no statesman of to-day 
is too great to perform faithfully his obligations under 
the Constitution to legislate thoughtfully, wisely and 
sympathetically for the unrepresented National Capital. 

The Capital's Ideal Peesident. 

The ideal President in his relations to the National 
Capital will combine the characteristics of many of his 
predecessors. He will bless the capital with friendly, 
helpful acts, like Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and 
Grant. He will cheer and strengthen the capital com- 



H2 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

munity by sympathetic words of sound and just doc- 
trine like William Henry Harrison and Andrew John- 
son. As a representative of the unrepresented District 
he will act toward the helpless community on the prin- 
ciple of "Put Yourself in His Place," giving full ex- 
pression within the lines of reason to the views and 
wishes of the unrepresented community. 

He will thus ascertain and carry out local sentiment in 
respect to local affairs on the principles laid down by 
William Henry Harrison and Andrew Johnson. He 
will be as eager to advance Washington's material 
and aesthetic development as Taft, as anxious for 
sociological reforms as Roosevelt. He will press the 
development of Washington as an educational center 
with the zeal of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, John 
Quincy Adams, Grant and Hayes. He will be as con- 
siderate of the Washingtonian's political rights and 
privileges in harmony with the Constitution as Madi- 
son, Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Grant. 

Stimulated by the spirit and inspired by the example 
of the ideal President, the whole nation will follow his 
wise and patriotic policy of fostering the nation's city. 
Washingtonians will cease all petty wrangling among 
themselves, will sacrifice personal prejudices in the 
public interest and will labor for the city's welfare in 
harmonious and effective cooperation. 

Americans, both inside and outside of Washington, 
will stand shoulder to shoulder in patriotic promotion 
of the National Capital. 

The material city will become more attractive, more 
healthful, more prosperous. Intellectually the capital 
will wonderfully develop as an educational, literary, 
musical and artistic center. Morally the nation's city 
will respond to every form of wholesome uplift. 

The nation will not be so absorbed in the material 



Noyes: The Presidents and the National Capital. 113 

Washington as to neglect the Washingtonian. Catch- 
ing the inspiration of the most enlightened of our Presi- 
dents, Americans will recognize that its men and not 
its piles of stone and brick constitute the real city ; that 
even a higher obligation is due to the animate than to 
the inanimate Washington, to the men of the capital 
than to its buildings and streets, its parks and monu- 
ments. 

These quotations of words of the Presidents suggest 
that there is no nobler task for any public man than to 
identify himself in some conspicuous way with the up- 
building of the nation's city. The opportunities are 
not, by any means, exhausted of winning a place in the 
nation's annals by the side of the great men whom I 
have quoted. There is room for every one of us— 
whether in the White House or in Congress or in the 
ranks of unofficial Washingtonians— to build for him- 
self a notable and enduring monument as a creator of 
the newer and greater Washington. 



